Primum Non Nocere
by TheVillainofTheStory
Summary: A girl forced into service as a Death Eater. At least a thousand lives ruined because of a Dark Lord. The story of one girl's determination to help see him fall.
1. Prologue

So, this is the first Harry Potter story I've posted, but the second one I've written. I might post the other one eventually, but this is my favorite. I'm just posting the first few chapters to see what people think, so don't expect regualr updatige. I'll post it all after I finish my Naruto stories. Enjoy!

Story Summary: A girl forced into service as a Death Eater. At least a thousand lives ruined because of a Dark Lord. The story of one girl's determination to see him fall.

Episode Summary: This is the prologue, so it sets up a bunch of stuff. Celia begins her story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, nor did I write it. If I had I wouldn't have married Harry and Genny, but that's just me.

Prologue

I think that, like all good stories (and even some bad ones), I shall start at the beginning. Beginnings tell you how things originate, and if you know how things originate you can see for your self whether the choices made along the journey were the correct ones. I think I did the right thing, but what you decide is completely left up to you.

My name is Cecilia Eleanor Rukin. I'm a pureblood witch from a Slytherin family that wanted nothing to do with the Dark Lord. The Rukin family is large, wealthy, and not pureblood crazy. My mother, Diana Rukin, is best friends with Narcissa Malfoy. And that is where my tale begins: at the Malfoy Manor, when I was seven years old.

"Dian, your I swear your daughter grows more precious every day!" Aunt Cissy squealed delightedly. I was sitting infront of the hearth, reading an Ancient Greek book on medicine. Internally, I rolled my eyes. Let them think I don't know what I'm reading. When they see me jab a pressure point and my new little 'cousin' collapse, I'll be the one laughing.

My mother giggled, her wineglass never so much as jostling. "Cissy, she can understand Greek. She knows what she's reading as much as any doctor is St. Mungos. But we aren't here to adore my daughter," mother said with a smile. She stood up and tapped the wineglass with her wand for attention. The room, which had been lively and full of chatter, fell silent immediately. "I would like to make a toast!" Mother's voice rang out clear and concise, like a hand bell.

Uncle Lucius made his way over to where Cissy was sitting on the leather couch and clasped her shoulder from behind. Cissy looked up at him and smiled. They were so in love it was disgusting to see. To prove that, I mimed gagging from my spot on the floor.

"To our dear friends Narcissa and Lucius, and their new born son, Draco. We know how long you have wanted this child, and we are ecstatic for you," my mother smiled a small smile on the last part of her sentence. Narcissa had lost two babies before Draco.

The room erupted into applause and glasses were gently tapped together. I rolled my eyes and continued with my book. Before I had even read a whole page and the clapping could die down, a hand on my shoulder interrupted me. I turned snapped my head up to invoke the full force of my glare on the unsuspecting person, but to my surprise and delight it was my almost brother.

"Regulus!" I squealed as he twirled me in a circle. Regulus Black and my oldest sister Eloise were engaged to be married. Regulus sat me up on his shoulder and walked over to greet his cousin.

"Reading by such a dim light will ruin your eyes, Celia," he teased. I couldn't see his face, but I knew it was perfectly composed. It was always a game between us.

"Holding me on your shoulder will give you a bad back," I replied, my face just as mask like. "And it will stunt your growth."

"As will being hunched over on the floor," Regulus pointed out. "What is so important in that book that you feel the need to be on the floor infront of the fire to read it?" I was balanced on his right shoulder, so he kept walking and weaving through the crowd of people that had formed around Aunt Cissy carefully. As he got to the front he slid me off his shoulder and grabbed me one armed before I hit the floor. "Here," he whispered as he set me down. A butterbeer appeared out of nowhere.

I beamed up at him. He smiled in return and I scampered off to the fireplace with my book and drink. Regulus and my older brother Thayer were best friends, which is how he met Eloise. Regulus was always around the house for one reason or another, so he was already like a brother to me. My second favorite brother, to be exact.

After a while, a voice that sounded a bit like a crow to me floated into my hearing. "Come Cissy, let's see the baby," one of the old ladies prodded Narcissa.

Aunt Cissy smiled and stood up. "All right. I'll go get Draco. Dian, will you please come with me?" My mother nodded and they both headed out of the room for the stairs.

The moment they left the room green tongues of flame leapt from the fireplace where I was sitting. Every person in the room, save for my family, knelt down to one knee. I stared defiantly up at the hooded and cloaked figure that stepped out of the floo. He had covered me in soot.

"HEY!" I squealed. There was soot in my book too. "MISTER! You got soot in my book!"

The man looked down at me. I could tell he was very pale, and had no nose. His eyes were big and red. He had a very thin mouth, but it was smiling at me. "So I did," he mused. His voice sounded dry and slithery, like leaves over rock. He pulled out a wand and knelt down to me. "Would you like me to clean it?"

"If you don't mind," I replied politely. "I'd have the house-elves clean it, but they would end up hurting my book." The man chuckled.

"Yes, this book does seem very old. Can you read it?"

I rolled my eyes. "Of course I can. See, this part here says, 'After you have cleaned the wound with vinegar, take a sharp needle and sew the edges of the wound together with silk thread. If you have neither silk thread nor a needle, take your wand and trace along the wound chanting the words knit and flesh repeatedly.' It goes on to say that magic is useful, but the body should heal itself if possible," I explained. The man flicked his wand and stood up. The soot marks faded from my book as though they had never been.

"What is you name?" he asked me. I stood up as gracefully as a seven-year-old can and curtsied like a good little pureblood.

"Cecilia Eleanor Rukin," I said as I bobbed.

The man was about to reply, but Cissy and mother walked into the room. Cissy staggered to a halt, handed the baby to my mother, and knelt to one knee. My mother simply nodded at the man and glared at me.

"Diana, your youngest daughter is most interesting," the man informed her. Mother smiled at the complement, but it didn't reach her eyes. "Where ever did she learn Greek?"

"One of the house elves we had bought on vacation in Athens taught her from the cradle. She knows both Greek and Latin," mother explained. I stood where I was, next to the man, trying to figure out what was going on.

The man held out his hand to me, a hand with long thin fingers. "Shall we go see the baby?" he asked me.

I took his hand. "I already saw it. It cries a lot and makes funny noises, but other than that it's no fun," I told him with a shrug of my shoulders.

He chuckled. "But the crying and noises are fun?" he asked me. He sounded genuinely interested.

I smirked. "The crying and noises make Aunt Cissy and Uncle Lucius run around like scared house-elves," I explained. The man laughed out right at this.

Cissy had stood up and was holding baby Draco. My mother stood next to her, ready to take me from the man. "I think your mother would like you to stand with her, Cecilia. I'll talk with you again soon," he said. I looked up at him and smiled. He smiled back down at me and I let go of his hand and grabbed my mother's.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Celia, I'm leaving now, but I wanted to say farewell," the man told me a little later that night. I was sitting in the kitchen, having gotten bored with the party. "I have a few books that you might be interested in, and if you'd like I'll have your Uncle Lucius bring them to you."

I hopped off my chair and curtsied. "Yes, m'lord," I said happily.

"And who told you to do that?"

"Aunt Cissy told me to answer you like that," I replied. "She said I could hold the baby if I did, and I told her yes Aunt Cissy, but my mother knew what I meant by that. Mother told me that if I wasn't respectful I'd get a switching on my bottom," I grimaced. Mother always knew me too well.

"What did you mean when you answered Narcissa?"

I grinned sheepishly. "I don't want to hold the baby, so I wasn't going to do as she said," I explained. The man laughed like he understood and would have done the same.

"I will see you soon, Cecilia," he assured me. He patted me on the head and then disapparated.

I gathered up my book and went back out to the parlor where my mother was. I was tired and wanted to go home. As I entered the room, every one fell silent and stared at me. "Yes?" I asked, my voice carrying through the room.

"Come here, darling," mother called from the sofa where she sat next to Aunt Cissy. Cissy was cradling the baby in her arms and humming.

I handed my book to a house-elf and skipped over to my mother. "Yes mother?" I asked as sweetly as I could. Mother patted the spot between herself and Cissy. I sat down carefully so the baby wouldn't cry. Next, much to my horror, Cissy put the baby in my lap.

"Mind his head," Cissy warned. I cradled his head carefully. The baby was warm and soft. His eyes stared up at me, storm gray and curious. At first I thought he was bald, but his hair was actually silver and wispy on his funny little head.

He reached up a hand and grabbed my nose. I snorted into his little baby fist, and he giggled. "You're a funny looking little baby, aren't you Draco?" I asked him seriously. He gurgled a bit more.

"Celia, what did the Dark Lord want to talk to you about?" my father, Aloysius, asked gently.

I glanced up at him from Draco. "He wanted to know if I wanted to borrow a book. I said yes and he said that he'd have Uncle Lucius bring it to me. He's a very nice man," I said with a smile. "He understood just like you did, mother."

Father and mother shared a dark look. "We have to be more careful," mother muttered. She wrapped her arm around my shoulders protectively. "He might decide to ask for one of us any way."

Father ran his hand through his short dark blonde hair. "He can't possibly want Celia. She's only seven!"

Lucius came around and clasped my father's forearm. "If you would support him, Celia would be safe. They all would be safe," he reasoned, giving my father a gentle shake.

Father glared at him. "No Rukin has ever followed the Dark Lord, and no Rukin ever will. You all need law abiding pure-bloods like us so that you don't fall under suspicion. We don't ask about your activities, and you keep them to yourselves. It's a fair trade," father snapped. He jerked out of Lucius's grip. I noticed that my family, Regulus, and Andromeda were the only ones still present.

"I suggest it only to protect your family, Aloysius. Nothing more, nothing less. But you're about to have a Death Eater married into the family. That will make Eloise a Death Eater's Wife, just like Narcissa. Maybe that will save you," Lucius said. But I could tell he didn't truly believe what he had said. We were the only pureblood Slytherin family who didn't follow the Dark Lord.

I was about to say something when a tiny fist tugged my hair. I snapped my head down to glare at the tiny bundle in my arms, only to see that he was glaring up at me. "You don't like any attention drawn away from you, do you little Draco?"

The tension in the room dissipated. Every one laughed, everyone except Regulus.

The next four years were strange and boring. Regulus disappeared mysteriously soon after Draco was born. The Dark Lord fell. Sirius, Regulus's brother who I liked almost as much, was placed in Azkaban. Draco grew from weird baby to annoying toddler. And I started Hogwarts.

I was placed in Slytherin House, having not been able to decide between Gryffindor and Slytherin. I studied hard and was top in my class. I was also still very interested in Medical Magic. I learned from Madam Pompfry and helped her in the Hospital Wing at every spare chance. My best friend that first year was Nymphadora Tonks, Aunt Andromeda's daughter.

Time went on and I kept learning medicine. Books were sent to me periodically through my years at Hogwarts from what was apparently the Dark Lord's own library.

In my fifth year at Hogwarts, I met the Weasly twins. They were first years, and their experiments and adventures got them in a whole heap of trouble quite often. When they would get hurt and didn't want to explain why, they came to me. I patched them and anyone else up on the down low. I guess that's what led to what happened, but that's for later.

This was the background, and so next comes the story.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1! I felt like throwing it out irrevocably onto the Internet for the world to see. I changed the name to something I liked a bit better. The original title was 'The Autopsy of the Life of Cecilia Rukin: Death Eaters' Doctor'. Not one of my best ideas.

Episode Summary: Cecilia starts her 7th year at Hogwarts just as Harry Potter becomes a first year.

1

On the first day of my seventh year at Hogwarts, I was walking down the hallway on the train, trying to find the prefect's apartment in the curst place, and not having much luck. I was Head Girl, and as such I was required to make a speech to all the prefects, telling them I had the utmost faith in them and all sorts of other fallacies. The prefects were always boring and snobbish, not a good way to start my last year at Hogwarts. Fred and George Weasly were graciously helping me find the compartment, simply so they could gossip.

"And do you know, Cecilia, he was all alone. No one even bothered to escort the poor boy to the train. Mum had to tell him how to get on the platform. He looked scared," Fred was telling me.

"And lonely," George added.

"Yet some how relieved. I can't imagine how bad it was, to be raised by muggles," Fred continued, making 'muggle' sound like something interesting found in a trashcan. Not totally repulsed, but intrigued and slightly disgusted at the same time. "Poor boy. We left him with Ron."

"Ron'll take good care of the poor thing," George said confidently. I stopped walking and turned to face them, wicked amusement in my eyes.

"You're starting to sound like your mum," I told them, ruffling their hair affectionately. "Coddling little ickle Harry Potter, because he looked all lonely and sad. Next thing you know, you'll be the ones knitting the Christmas sweaters."

"And when we do, you'll not be getting one," George replied haughtily, putting his hands on his hips and sticking his nose in the air. Fred stuck his tongue out at me and nodded in agreement. These two were my wards, my little ducklings. I love them as dearly as I do my own family. More so, usually.

I snorted at their antics. I was about to come up with a witty remark, but Percy walked up to me all in a bother. "Rukin, we've been looking for you everywhere!" he exclaimed, making a show out of catching his breath.

Fred and George moved to either side of him and looped their arms around his shoulders. "Now, really Percy," Fred admonished. He shook his finger in the older Weasly's face in reproach.

"If you had truly looked everywhere, you'd have already found her," George continued, shaking his head. I stifled a giggle. Their older brother was the most priggish, boring, stickler I had ever met.

Against my true feelings, I stepped up to Percy and linked arms with him, deftly removing both Fred and George. I waved the twins good bye behind my back and walked on with Percy. "Now, dearest Percy, what was it you needed to speak with me for?" I asked politely. Percy had swollen up all prideful when I took his arm. I knew he would. The only way to prevent him from making a nuisance of himself was to stroke his ego.

"Well, you see," he began. Inwardly I groaned. A long speech. Lovely. "All of the prefects have already assembled in our compartment, except you. I took it upon myself to come and find you, what with you being a friend of the family and all. We await what I know will be a magnificent speech."

I smiled up at my ginger companion. "Thank you for that faith, Percy. I only hope that it will live up to your standards," I said truthfully. I hadn't written a speech.

We entered the compartment and silence fell. The eight new prefects' faces ranged from anxious to cocky. The older ones simply looked bored. Percy took a seat near Penelope Clearwater and looked up at me expectantly.

I cleared my throat. "Welcome everyone, to another year at Hogwarts," I began friendly enough. "I assume that you all read the information that your respective Heads of House sent you along with your badge. I expect you to abuse your positions some, but take too much advantage and you will have a very angry Slytherin at your throat," I made that part really mean .

One of the male newbies, a fellow Slytherin, asked, "Can you really incapacitate some one without a wand? Like, the muggle way with pressure points?"

I gave him, and the rest of the room, a chilling smile. "Whatever the rumors are, multiply them by thirty-one," I said darkly. A few people exchanged worried glances. "But back to my speech, I'm sure we will have a wonderful year together. So long as you do what is right, I will find no fault with you."

Another girl, a 7th year Hufflepuff named Candra, asked, "Is there anything else we should know about this year? Things that won't be mentioned at the feast?"

I smiled ruefully on the inside. Yes, I had slipped up the year before by not telling them that the second to last dungeon was being re-spelled. On their patrolls, two of the prefects were exposed to the unrestrained magic and had to be rush to the Hospital Wing. "Yes actually, now that I think about it. The scuttlebut around the train is that Harry Potter is going to be a first year."

Everyone began talking at once. "HARRY POTTER!" "What does he look like?" "Have you seen him?" "What house will he be in?" "What's he like?" "Where is he?"

"ENOUGH!" Percy bellowed. Most of the prefects sat down looking petulent. The others remained standing, mostly sixth years. They knew that they only answered to me. The older ones knew that it was futile trying to go against Percy (Because he was simply too annoying to bother with), and the younger ones were actually afraid.

"Thank you, Percy," I said amiably, looking pointedly at those still standing. He and the others sat down slowly, eyeing each other. I rolled my eyes. "Harry Potter is sitting in a compartment at the back of the train with a fellow first year named Ron Weasly. It has been confirmed by Fred and George Weasly, whom you know I put more faith in than I do you." A few people chuckled. My use of the Weasly twins as secret agents was infamous.

"What would you like us to do about him?" Percy asked.

"According to the twins, he looked sad and lonely," I told them. "Remember, he was raised by muggles. This could be his first experience in our world. Make sure that no one bothers him too much and keep a kind eye out for him, whether he's sorted into your house or not.

"This concludes my speech. Have a good year, and try not to make me have to do more work than is necessary," I concluded. I turned to walk out of the compartment, another more interesting mission to accomplish.

"And he glared at me!" Draco cried indignantly. "Harry Potter glared at ME!" I smothered a giggle. Draco was sitting in a compartment with Crabbe and Goyle. They hadn't been too hard to find; Draco tends to leave an impression.

"Well you were a bit rude," I informed him. Draco stuck his tongue out at me. I sighed. Leave it to Draco to offend the most famous boy in all of the wizarding world. "Draco, he was raised by muggles," I began, but Draco's horrified gasp made me stop. "What?"

"He was raised by _muggles_?" he spat the word like any other pureblood. "Harry Potter is a muggle lover?" Just like a Malfoy to ignore the greater issue to squeal over the disgusting-ness of muggle loving.

I looked at him sharply and he quieted down. "Draco, they abused him," I explained gently. "I'm pretty sure that he has the same view of them as most of society: strange, unclean creatures not to be bothered unless necessary. So be nice."

Draco hung his head. Only Severus and I could shame Draco. "Yes Cecilia," he mumbled. Crabbe and Goyle gaped at me. I glared at them, but they didn't get the hint.

"Vincent, Gregory, would you go and find the cart?" I asked sweetly. "I'm missing one chocolate frog card, you see-" They were out the door before I could finish my sentence. Their parents had trained them well; you don't piss off a Rukin.

I pulled Draco into a one-armed hug and he leaned his head on my shoulder. Contrary to my feelings when he was born, Draco was my favorite person in the world. The feeling was mutual of course. "What's wrong?" I asked. His eyes were closed and he looked like he was sleeping, but I knew better.

"What if I don't make Slytherin?" he asked my shoulder. "What if I disappoint father and mother? What if-"

"There are no what ifs," I told him sternly. Draco sat up to look me in the eye. "You will be Slytherin. You will be a credit to the Malfoy name, and more importantly to the now dead Black name. You have your mother's blood strongly. You'll assume your rightful place as my replacement when I graduate."

Draco stared at me for a while longer, then put his head back down. "Me, the next Celia Rukin," he chuckled. I rolled my eyes. My reputation was interesting, and to be the heir to that held a certain amount of… Honor? Responsibility? Dignity? Skill? The list seemed to go on. "And I think mother's family would be proud of me."

"Regulus would have loved you," I assured him. Regulus had disappeared before Draco had even turned two. "And if you need me, I'll be around."

That night I began my rounds in the dungeon. After walking around the dark, dank corridors for almost seven years, they no longer frightened me. The slime almost seemed like family.

As I turned a corner to the lower dungeons, where Salazar Slytherin once had his personal rooms, I sensed another person. It was strange, like two different people in one body. The presence simply felt _wrong_.

"Celia my dear," a hoarse voice called from the darkness. The voice was muffled and raspy, but still hissing somehow. "Come closer, let me see you. It has been too long."

_Lumos_, I cast the spell silently. I had never seen this man down in the dungeons before. "Professor Quirrel?" I asked, confused. "Why are you in the dungeons? Professor Snape is in-"

"It's not me who wishes to speak with you," he spat. I was taken aback. Where had his stutter gone? Why did he look so unhappy? Quirrel turned around and un-did his signature turban. As the last of the wrapping came undone, I saw what was beneath. I almost screamed.

"My lord!" I gasped and rushed foreword. Voldemort was on the back of Quirrel's head. I thought that working in the infirmary at Hogwarts I had seen everything. This went beyond weird. It was unnatural.

"Hello Cecilia."


	3. Chapter 2

Here we are again. I hope that I can get more of this up soon, but I don't want to do too much until I get another story finished. Enjoy though!

Episode Sumary: She said what about breakfast...with Snape?

"MY LORD!" I exclaimed as I rushed forward. I tentatively reached up to gently feel his face. I don't know what horrors I was expecting, but it felt just like any other face. "What happened?"

Voldemort grimaced. "My spell doubled back on me when I tried to kill the Potter boy. I became less than alive but more than a ghost. I have wandered for years, in agony and desolation for one of my faithful Deatheaters to return to me. What an unpleasant shock to find that they had all abandoned me, I who have taken more precaution for immortality than any other!" Voldemort went into a coughing fit.

I shook my head, exasperated and terrified at the same time. "My lord, it is difficult for those who are simple minded to understand something as complex as a horrorcrux. But enough of that. I must do what I can for you, though it pains me to."

"And why does it pain you? Are you going to turn your back on me as well? Was it a mistake to come to you for aid?" the Dark Lord demanded. The look on his face almost sent me running back down the corridor screaming, but my Oath kept me still.

"I regret it because the only thing that will sustain you is unicorn blood," I answered levelly. I was impressed that my voice didn't break. To be able to suggest that he kill a unicorn and not flinch was a troubling thought.

Voldemort looked at me for a long time, like he was staring into my soul. Or trying to use legillimancy, but I doubted it would work. He wasn't strong enough to do anything, which is why he needed that fool Quirrel.

"When I regain my body, Celia, you will be one of my Deatheaters," he finally said. "One of my most treasured."

I shivered involuntarily. No Rukin had ever been a Deatheater, and I certainly wasn't going to be the first. It didn't seem like a good time to say that though, so I bowed respectfully.

"My lord," Quirrel interrupted. "If the unicorn blood will help, we must go and get some immediately!" His voice sounded shrill, like a jealous girlfriend's. Annoying little prick.

Voldemort sighed and gave me a special look, one that told me he thought the same of his host as I did. "So we must," he agreed, resigned. "I will see you again soon, Celia."

Quirrel turned and strode down the hall, wrapping his turban back onto his head as he went. As soon as I could no longer hear his footsteps echoing in the corridor, I slumped against the wall, slime be damned.

Closing my eyes, I took a shuddering breath. Most of my family had assumed that Voldemort was still alive. There was not very much human left in him to die a mortal death. Which meant that he must die the death of a god. And who better to slay him than another god?

I stood straight once more and wiped the slime off my back with a charm. In that brief moment I had some insight into the future. I knew that it would be Harry Potter, the boy who I only knew as of then as small, sad and lonely, who would strike down the Dark Lord Voldemort. My mind had been made up. In my own twisted way, I would help Harry Potter slay the man who had killed so many that I held dear. In this clash of gods to come, I would make for myself a path for vengeance and redemption through another.

I walked back to the Slytherin Dormitory with purpose in my step. It was going to be a long road ahead, and I only had a short time to scheme.

"Celia, it's time for breakfast," Draco whispered in my ear. Groaning, I opened my eyes to the dim light of the Slytherin common room. I had fallen asleep it seemed, in my favorite chair near the fire. I smiled at the fire, only truly half-seeing it. Years ago, before even my great-grandmother's time at Hogwarts, someone had charmed the Slytherin fireplace to burn a green fire.

Remembering that Draco was still there, I stood up and stretched. "Thank you for waking me," I told him as we walked to the door to go to breakfast. "I was plotting something rather important last night. If I had been tardy for Transfiguration, McGonnagal would have morphed me into a cicada."

"What were you scheming?" he asked. Before I could answer, Vincent and Gregory appeared at our flanks like bodyguards. I presume that Lucius called a favor in with Mr. Crabbe and Mr. Goyle to have their sons be just that for Draco. Overprotective, yet he wants Draco to stand on his own two feet.

"I'll tell you later," I promised with a smile. Draco smiled back, but the look in his eyes told me that he would not forget. A pity too. I would have preferred not telling him about my plan.

Leaving my young protégé with the two walls of meat that he called friends, I made my way quickly through the empty dungeons to Professor Snape's office. Severus, as I called him, and I always shared breakfast on the first day of school.

As I approached the door, I heard muffled voices in a heated argument. Before I could decipher what was being discussed, the door flew open and Quirrel practically ran out, almost bowling me over in the process. Severus stood behind his desk, face flushed with anger.

"I assume this means you know that the Dark Lord is back?" I asked calmly as I shut the door behind me.

Severus sat down in the chair behind his desk, his hands flying up to rub his temples. "Yes," he sighed. "I spoke with him briefly. You apparently told him to drink unicorn blood." His tone wasn't accusatory, thankfully. My dear friend sounded tired, very tired. He had lived through one war and lost much. The idea of a second was obviously taxing his strength of mind.

Sitting down in one of the soft leather chairs reserved for those actually invited to his office, I flicked my wand at the empty desk between us. Two plates of French toast, sausage links, and fried eggs appeared along with two mugs of coffee.

With a grateful nod to me, Severus took a long gulp of his coffee. "Perfect as always," he remarked. "Let's not talk of such un-pleasantries this morning. There will be time for it later, if things are as bad as they seem. How was your train ride? And your thestral, Sibyl?"

I smiled at the change of topic. "The train went as to be expected," I replied as I cut my breakfast into pieces. "The prefects are a useless lot this year, but no trouble makers. I made my speech and then went to find Draco. He was worried about the usual thing first year purebloods contemplate: will I be sorted into the right house, will I make my family proud, what if I misbehave and get expelled, concerns along those line of thought."

Severus chuckled. "I assume you assured him that he would be a credit to the Malfoy name?" he inquired.

"My words exactly," I replied. "But I also told him he would do justice to the name of Black." Popping a sausage link into my mouth, I sat back and waited for the rise I knew I would receive from the potion master.

"Speaking of Black," he began, the relaxed tone fleeing his voice, "Harry Potter is now a first year. Have you spoken to him?"

I shook my head no. "Unfortunately not. I saw him sorted though. He looks exactly like the photographs I've seen of his father. He'll be a handsome young man when he grows up a bit more, but now he just looks sad and lonely," I said with a sigh. Poor thing. To be abused by muggles for a decade and then shoved into a world you never knew was real. Then to find out that everyone in said world knew your name.

Severus apparently was of a different mind. "No, he looks cocky and arrogant," he spat. I had wanted a rise, and I got it. "And I plan to make his life hell for the next seven years!"

I glared at him. "Punishing the son for the sins of the father is both petty and foolish Severus," I said slowly, making venom drip from each word. The Potter boy was my path to atonement. Not even Severus Snape would be allowed to interfere with my plans to keep the boy safe and well. "Do you choose to ignore the fact that you love his mother, even now when she is long dead in her grave?"

"I may love his mother, but I cannot love the boy who is the very image of the man I hated. The man who stole my Lily from me," Severus hissed. So much hatred for such a juvenile quarrel… It must have been a sad life for Severus.

Comprehension then dawned on me like lightening splits the sky. "You think he should have been your son," I whispered, awed at my own insight. Severus pursed is lips and said nothing, so I continued. "Your little carbon copy, not James Potter's. The fact that Harry Potter looks like James is enough to make you forget the way Lily sacrificed her life to save him. And the fact that it was you who betrayed her."

Silence reigned for a few minutes as I watched the hurt expressions finally fall from Severus's face. Glancing at the watch I had received for my Coming of Age, I saw that I was going to be tardy for Transfiguration.

Standing up quickly, I clasped the hand my mentor had on the desk. "We will speak more on this at a later time, for this matter is tied inexorably with the one Quirrel presents. Suffice to know for now that if you help me, Harry Potter will be the reparation for us both."

Did anyone catch the little song line in the episode summary? Nice huh? Tell me what you think. (About the story, not the tiny song reference)


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